SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHURCH PLANTING

 


5/12/08 Church Plants Needed!

Many of you have asked about a specific location for the next church plant. While we don’t have a specific answer right now, we are quite certain that we will be heading north into the “Inland Empire.” This is a huge area with very few fundamental churches. How many? Definitions of “fundamental” vary and of course we don’t know about all of the churches, but to give you a general idea, as of right now we know of about 5 fundamental churches in the entire Inland Empire. Check out the unofficial population numbers below, and you should be able to quickly see why this is an area in great need of church plants! Thirteen cities with more than 50,000 people, and a total population near 2,000,000. Let’s go north!

Inland Empire Cities 2007 Population   This makes the I.E. similar in size or larger than the entire metro areas of:
Mentone* 7,803   San Antonio
Grand Terrace 12,543   Sacramento
Mira Loma* 17,617   Kansas City
Bloomington* 19,318   Portland
Loma Linda 22,632   Fort Worth /Arlington
Norco  27,255   Orlando
Yucaipa 51,784   San Francisco
Colton 51,918   Virginia Beach
Highland 52,503   Indianapolis
Redlands 71,807   Milwaukee
Upland 75,137   Las Vegas
Rialto 99,767   Charlotte
Corona 147,428   New Orleans
Ontario 173,690   Austin
Rancho Cucamonga 174,308   Memphis
Moreno Valley 183,860   Louisville
Fontana 188,498   Jacksonville
San Bernardino 205,493   Richmond, VA
Riverside 296,842   Oklahoma City
  1,880,203    
These stats area largely based on the California Department of Finance 2007 stats except the * cities which are unincorporated and so I could only find 2000 census numbers. The Metropolitan Statistical Area list in the right column is drawn from the 2000 census.

5/12/08 Providentially Forced Delegation

In His providence the Lord has taken David Wilkinson to Oklahoma City for a couple of weeks to help handle Farmers Insurance’s overload of claims from the severe storms. It’s hard to have him gone - for his family most of all, but also for the church. But the Lord is using it to help others step up and get involved. God has forced us to do some delegating that wasn’t happening otherwise. On Saturday we had nine guys help us replace the wheels on our new carts that haul all of our stuff in and out each Sunday. It looks like the Lord has also provided someone to pick up the trailer each week and oversee the setup and teardown. These are big blessings, so we praise the Lord!

5/12/08 Southern California Ministry Summit

This Tuesday and Wednesday I’ll be up at Camp Ironwood for our third Southern California Ministry Summit. This is an annual pastors gathering that focuses on praying for one another, encouraging church planters and church planting in Southern California, and refreshing our burden for Southern California. I would appreciate your prayers that God would use this time.

5/1/08 The Trues have put together a very good two-page summary of their ministry plans. See it here.

4/29/08 New Church Family Picture!

4/10/08 Upsizing, and the Mortgage Crisis

We purchased a 7 x 14 trailer with a ramp and sold our 6 x 10. We purchased 20 more chairs, and David is building rolling carts for them since we will have a ramp now. This trailer can probably hold 150 chairs - the auditorium at the school won’t seat much more than that.

I just posted an article for our church family with biblical principles related to the current housing situation. You can read it at  www.findhope.net.

4/2/08 A Praying Church

You cycle through various ministry emphases simply because you can’t emphasize everything at once. A current emphasis that has been growing in my heart is the desire to be a praying church. Another pastor shared with me the idea of making a church family prayer card (just like you have missionary prayer cards), to help your people pray for one another. So we are trying to get a picture taken so that we can do that. We also are starting a prayer time between the 9:30 and 10:30 service, where a small group will pray for the upcoming service. We’re also at the end of I John, and the difficult section in 5:14-17 ended up being a wonderful challenge for us to pray for one another.

We’re very excited that Eric & Alicia True have been able to purchase a new home in Menifee. You can go to www.liveheritagelake.com, check out the picture of the pool, and then razz them about how tough it must be coming to Southern California. They will share their presentation at our sending church, Heritage Bible Church, next Wednesday evening. It’s sweet to consider that 5 years ago we were sharing our presentation at Heritage - now 5 years later they will be hearing a presentation from a potential ‘granddaughter’ church out of GBC.

3/17/08 Where to Begin

Lots going on related to the plans for a future church plant. We were in South Carolina for Eric True’s ordination service, and on that trip we also had more contact with three other couples that are seriously considering coming to Southern California. We also had good contacts with Heritage Bible Church and Mt. Calvary Baptist Church. Now Eric & Alicia are here in SoCal hunting for a house. They go back on Wednesday, and their moving date is tentatively April 25. The GBC church family gave them a gracious welcome this Sunday, and it seems obvious that our church family is eager for them to come. Praise the Lord for all of these things!
Now I’m digging out of the pile of work that accumulated while I was gone for 8 days…

3/2/08 Post Titles Are Like Email Subjects

Post titles are like email subject lines: they expose my utter lack of creativity. We had a great Sunday. With most of our people healthy, we had record-setting attendance (94, though that included a handful of out-of-towners). In Adult Bible Study we worked through the very controversial verses in John 6, and the Lord seemed to really bless the time so that a normally contentious topic was not contentious at all. Yesterday was also a day of great blessing because someone offered to fly Kristalyn, Katie, and Abby back to South Carolina so that they can be there when I am next weekend. Kristalyn is thrilled, and they will be leaving this Wednesday to go to South Carolina. I’ll still be here in SoCal through Friday, because someone in our church paid for me to attend this year’s Shepherd’s Conference. I’ll take a red-eye to Charlotte Friday night, and spend some time visiting with Jerry & Johanna Dierking. Then Sunday I’ll head down to Greenville for Eric True’s ordination service. On Wednesday I’ll fly back, Kristalyn and the the girls will fly back (separately), and Eric and Alicia will also fly (separately) from Charlotte to Southern California. Eric & Alicia will be here March 12-19 house hunting. All of that should be prefaced by “if the Lord wills”! So things are a zoo around here while we try to wrap up the details for all of us to be gone for 8 days.

2/25/08 The Growing Team

Zachary Caleb Wilkinson was born at 8:15 PM on 2/24. He joins Aubrey Lee and Justin Franklin as the latest little additions to our rapidly growing team!

2/25/08 Remembering the Early Days

2/24 was a good though crazy Sunday. We’ve had 34 visitors so far in 2008 (though unfortunately most of those won’t ’stick’). Last night a visiting family from the morning came to our house for fellowship group in the evening. That’s always a big step for people to take. Attendance continues to be very good despite lots of sickness.

I recently came across the church planting journal that I did off and on from May ‘02 to sometime in ‘05 (GBC started in October of ‘03). A couple days ago I read the entries from the summer of ‘03 when we did our first outreach in Menifee (though we were not yet holding services). It was a complete flop. Then last night I read the entries from October and November ‘03, including my thoughts after our first Sundays in the elementary school. I had forgotten what a difficult and discouraging time it was. It’s thrilling to think about what God has done since then. It’s also thrilling to be at a point where we can start making realistic plans to do it again in a couple of years! Lord willing we will be a little more prepared this time around (I cringe a little bit when I read about those early days), but human preparation is no substitute for God’s powerful working. In those early days of GBC we did see God work in remarkable ways; we are still seeing that today; and that will be the only hope for the next church plant. John Owen encouraged my heart this morning with these words about Christ:

  • His treasures of grace are unsearchable
  • His stores inexhaustible
  • His heart bountiful and large
  • His hand open and liberal

Is church planting hard and scary? Not really - with that kind of God, I think thrilling is a much better word!

2/21/08 Pillars of Church Planting

Someone recently asked me about issues or truths that are ‘pillars of church planting.’ The main answer is easy: Ephesians and Acts. But after that, I pulled out the little book that shaped my church planting philosophy and vision more than any other: Multiplying Churches, edited by Stephen Timmis (isbn 1857925734, I think it is out of print but still available directly from christianfocus.com). Some chapters of the book are useless, but the others easily make up for it. Here are some of the things that helped shape my thinking:

He begins by saying that “at the heart of this material lies a conviction that church planting is necessary from both an ecclesiological perspective and a missiological perspective: in other words, for the sake of existing churches and for the sake of non-Christians.” He argues that “church planting is a God-ordained strategy” and therefore “we all should and could be involved.”

He criticizes the ideal of the big church and argues that “a vision for church growth must be a vision for church planting.”

He says that church planting “is an opportunity to reinvent church along radically biblical lines.” I don’t think we have any business reinventing church, but the general point is right: church planting is a wonderful opportunity to go back to the Bible and seek a biblical philosophy of ministry, instead of just doing what has always been done.

He says “The place one gives to the church in one’s theology will affect the place one gives it in mission. If the individual is at the heart of God’s purposes then it is natural to place the individual at the heart of mission. But if the church is at the heart of God’s purposes and Christ’s saving work, we need not be embarrassed about making it the heart of mission.”

He argues for the importance of teams in church planting: “As we think of leaders, we should not think Lone Ranger.”

He argues for churches planting churches, saying that “Church planting is part of normal church life. At present it carries a certain mystique; church planters more so. We need to create a culture in which, at the very least, transplanting is normal. Every local church should be aiming to transplant. Every local church should be raising up church planters.”

He pleads for mature, experienced men to plant churches: “It is a task best undertaken by leaders of caliber, experience, and gifting. Unfortunately, what often happens is that such leaders move on to larger churches and bigger pulpits. [This is] a trend that needs reversing.”

He argues for the importance of strategy, and for the role of important cities in that strategy.

“A refusal to undertake a gospel initiative out of a fear of failure is a far greater problem than a gospel initiative failing.” That was such an encouragement to me – it’s not a failure to try to plant a church and fail. It’s a failure to not plant the church because you were too afraid. He does not, however, minimize the damage that can be done by a failed church plant. So he adds this exhortation: “All of this is just another way of saying that church planting is a long-term initiative, and that ought to be written into the contract.”

2/18/08 Answering Prayer

Simple update: God is answering prayer. I am amazed at the number of specific answers to prayer we are seeing. (and why should I be amazed?) These answers are coming in the most important area - heart changes in individual lives. I don’t know of any greater blessing for a church ministry than to be able to say: God is answering prayer and changing lives. Of course I can’t share specifics on a public site like this, but I hope you can rejoice with us that God is changing lives. After all, isn’t that the point of church planting?!

We have been learning more about a facility lease possibility. You can learn more by downloading a Word document here.

1/28/08 Update on the Trues

Eric & Alicia had their first ‘deputation’ service on Sunday at Cornerstone Baptist in Greenville. It was an exciting and tiring day for them. I think Eric really enjoys being able to share the model and long term vision. It’s thrilling that the Lord is providing these opportunities to share these things with so many people.
We had three visiting families at church Sunday morning. The Lord was very gracious to hold off the rain for unloading and reloading the trailer.

1/26/08 What a Place!

As if it wasn’t enough to have two small planes run into each other and fall onto a car dealership in Corona … or to have a helicopter crash into the middle of one of Southern California’s busiest freeways … or to have tornadoes that touched ground … we even had avalanches this week! Fires, droughts, floods, earthquakes, mudslides, tornadoes, avalanches, helicopters and planes falling out of the sky - what a place!

1/22/08 Amazing Home Prices

http://www.realtor.com/realestate/menifee-ca-92584-1092954461/

1/18/08 Poor Southern Californians

It’s obviously a rough time economically, and especially here where so much of the economic vitality has come from the housing market. But Southern California is known for its materialism, and so “rough times” may be a little bit relative. Exhibit A: Our local paper had an article about a man who is in financial trouble because his adjustable rate mortgage has gone up. It noted that he had to turn in the BMW he was leasing, and he is having to borrow his Mom’s Mercedes Benz. Poor guy.
By the way, if you want to come buy a home in Southern California, this is a wonderful time for it! There are lots of single family homes in our area for around 250k - the lowest they’ve been in several years. There is a 5 bedroom house down the street from us for $319k - it would have been $475k just 15 months ago.

1/14/08 The Whole Body Causes the Growth of the Body

We praise the Lord for his blessings on our special Sunday January 13. We had a great group of people: those who’ve been around for a long time, some who’ve come in the last 6 months, and two families who’ve come in just the last few weeks. We talked some about our ‘vision’ and direction as a church, and then spent a long time talking about particular areas where we need people to be involved. The attitude of the people seemed great, and I think it was a good step forward in their sense of ownership in the church. The other elders also seem excited, and they both had good attendance at their fellowship groups Sunday night.

1/7/08 Starting Three Fellowship Groups

We were excited to have 47 people at our three fellowship groups on Sunday night. We had three families that have never been to a Sunday night group before! Though we may not be able to sustain that number, I think people understand the importance of it and want to make an effort to be there.

1/1/08 Praying for January 13

Will you pray with us about a special ‘church family meeting’ on January 13? It’s an exciting and important time for our church, and we need to grow and mature so that the whole body causes the growth of the body. There are many things to pray for, but maybe the simplest prayer would be that of Nehemiah (1:11), that God would grant us success and favor with our church family as we present to them more of our burden, vision, and how they can be involved.

12/26/07 Christmas Update

We didn’t do anything unusual (program, outreach event, etc.) this Christmas. We just had our normal morning service with some special Christmas music and messages. We had about 70 in the main service. There was a fun energy and the singing was very good (despite several humorous musical snafus). In the evening we did do something new - we had 28 people come with us to carol at a nursing home. We spent about an hour singing in their two dining rooms. So it was a good Christmas Sunday, and it was nice not to have the pressure of a big program or event. The megachurch in Menifee pays to thoroughly advertise their special Christmas services each year, so we generally don’t try to advertise special events at Christmas.

Now we are preparing for a very important congregational meeting on January 6, and the start of our third Sunday night fellowship group.

12/20/07 California, Growth, and Immigration

There is a helpful article in today’s LATimes about population growth in California. They especially note how the housing downturn and lending crisis have pushed a lot of people out of state. Look on the left side of the page for a link to a very interesting interactive map called “California Population Growth.” (Some of the stats are by county - we live in Riverside County - the long, narrow county that stretches all the way to the Arizona border)

12/19/07 A Pastor and His Money

How a pastor handles his money can make or break his ministry. At a time when things are financially rough for a lot of Southern Californians and very tight for our church, it’s especially important that we model contentment and carefulness in how we handle our finances. For Kristalyn and I, one piece of software has made a huge difference for us. It’s a $29.95 program called “Budget“, available from www.snowmintcs.com . We’ve used the budgeting setups in Money & Quicken; we know that there are other budgeting services available online, some for free; but in our opinion, nothing compares to “Budget.” It has completely transformed how we handle our money, and we highly recommend it.

12/18/07 The Threesome

It’s not the most amazing photo in the world, but it does let you catch a current glimpse of our elder team at GBC. The Franklin kids on the left are Justin, Jacob, Jared, Julia. Kyrk and Michaela Wilkinson are in front of Kristalyn (and if Heather wasn’t hidden, you could plainly see that Wilkinson #3 is well on his way). Katie and Abby Lovegrove are on the right.

12/10/07 Update on Eric & Alicia

Eric & Alicia True are very busy in preparations for come to California. There are several large “hurdles,” such as the preparation of a deputation presentation, Eric’s preparation for ordination, selling their home, and making plans for the transition of Eric’s business. Needless to say, it’s a busy time for them! They would appreciate your prayers as they plan toward a spring arrival in Menifee - right now it’s looking like late March is a good possibility.

12/10/07 Spiritual Gifts

As part of our study on personal discipleship, I knew I needed to include a study on spiritual gifts. But I wasn’t excited about that! I knew it would take a lot of prep, and I knew that it would involve hot-button issues. Once I opened my Bible and got started, God’s grace got to work in my heart. I realized that the spiritual gifts are a remarkable blessing from God for the church family. They are wonderful, essential tools for a healthy church. My attitude went from “I guess I need to teach about this” to “Praise the Lord for spiritual gifts!”

12/6/07 Signs of the Times

The largest local real estate company recently opened a large new office a couple miles from our home. Today large commercial moving trucks were lined up outside, and after only a few months the office is closed. They had another office in 3000 sq. feet of retail space near the Menifee Target - that too is closed. Those are signs of the times, as the Menifee housing market finally bites the dust. Here in California the market always seems to resurrect itself, but it may take years. In the mean time, we might have enough people to keep us busy - 60,000 in Menifee, and at least 350,000 within 30 minutes!

11/26/07 Evangelistic Opportunity

I failed to mention in the previous post that the baptism service was another good evangelistic opportunity because of some of the family that attended. So we made it an evangelistic service and shared the gospel by explaining the difference between Christian baptism and baptism in other religions!

11/26/07 Worldliness & Baptism

Yesterday morning we started into I John 2:15-17, and John’s teaching about the danger of love for the world. I think we struggle to let God examine our hearts for worldliness, because it isn’t one of those ‘acceptable’ sins that we are willing to admit.
A good portion of our church family joined us for a 1:00 baptism service for two of our young people.  Here’s the testimony from a 14 year old girl who was baptized yesterday:

    I had always wanted to be baptized, ever since God and my parents helped me to understand what it meant, but for years my pride kept getting in the way. I believed that I was a sinner deserving of Hell, and had accepted Christ as my personal Savior. Therefore, I believed that the next step was to be baptized.

    I was always afraid of what people might think if I told them I was not baptized. About a month ago, I went through spiritual heart breaking pain.

    The next morning as I awoke, I heard a voice in my heart saying, ”Follow my commandment.” I prayed to God to strengthen my heart and to prepare it for His will.

     His will was there and my pride was gone. I have felt like a new person ever since, wanting only to do His will and for His glory! How true the one verse is that says, “Weeping may endure for  a night ,but joy cometh in the morning.”

10/26/07 Fire pictures

10/16/07 Fuel for Revival

We are two weeks into our expositional study of John’s first letter. The Lord is allowing this book that has often baffled me in the past to unfold with beauty and power for my heart. It is such a simple book, yet I often feel like I’m standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon: the depths are staggering. I know that’s true of all of Scripture, but it is especially true for my heart with this book right now. Would you pray that God would graciously use I John to bring revival in our church family? John’s plea for diligent attention to our relationship with God seems like especially good fuel for genuine revival. As with any church, we need it: a fresh sense of the offense of sin; the purifying allure of true fellowship with God; awe at the patience, perseverance, and faithfulness of God to endlessly forgive us for endlessly tearing apart our fellowship with him; horror at the adultery of loving the world while claiming to love God; wonder at the love that would make us children of God. What if those things were truly fresh in our hearts by the ministry of the Holy Spirit through the Word?
David & Heather Wilkinson are preparing to move into a larger home, as they prepare for baby #3 (due in March). Adam & Kristi Lee are in the Northeast visiting family and are eager for the arrival of baby #1 (due in February). Scott & Gina Franklin are settling into the new routines of life with baby #4, who was born a month ago.

9/26/07 Land and a Building?

In light of our recent emphasis on the steps toward another church plant, some of you have wondered if we are abandoning any hope of getting our own facility for GBC Menifee. Should we be putting such a strong emphasis on more church planting when GBC Menifee’s facility situation is still very tenuous?

I’ll be the first to admit that this is a hard question! Here are some scattered (and sometimes conflicting) thoughts:
1) We are fearful that if we wait to plant another church until we have everything we need at GBC Menifee we’ll never get around to church planting. There will always be something else to take our resources, “one more thing” we need to get or do.
2) We know that in most urban areas, the traditional model of buying land and building a building will not be possible. We welcome the challenge of pursuing alternatives to that model.
3) Purchasing land and building a suitable facility in a strategic area of Menifee would probably cost at least a million dollars, if not millions.
4) We know that God could work a miracle and provide land, a building, or a large financial gift to make a purchase possible; we want to pray for this and expect God to do great things.

Practically, what are the possibilities right now?
1) The most likely possibility is that we could find another rental facility in Menifee that would be a more stable, long-term situation.
2) The public school facilities are ideal, with restrooms, several classrooms, etc. They may allow us to continue to rent there for some time to come - there is no way to know.
3) There may be another more unusual option, such as sharing a facility with another church, using modular buildings, etc.

These issues are in my prayers nearly every day, and I would be thrilled if you would join me in praying: “Lord, give us the wisdom to discern the next step in our facility situation that will bring glory to you; give us the courage to take that step; and give us the provision we need for that step.”

 
 
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